Moonborn
by Winter

Icy cold winds made her shiver, lying there naked in the starlit snow. A tiny baby with skin pale as ivory. All around her they danced, and danced. Naiads and fauns, forest spirits and fae, roes and pixies. Even a few of the white children were there, human to the eye if not to the soul.

Outside the circle of her birthlight the darker creatures tread their slower rhythm. The ulvs and the huldras and the shade elves, paying their respect to the Nightqueen and the Moonborn.

She stood up in the midst of the dancers; a child now. Still as pale, still as shivering as her unsure feet slid on the snow. Her Mother's light failed to warm. The embrace she longed for was growing distant, ever oh so distant.

Cries of forlorn longing, empty heart's scream from a sore lonely throat, drowning the joy of the dancers.

Above, the Moon looked on, indifferently.

One after one, the dancers approached her. A touch or a kiss, a whisper of gratitude or a blessing. With the birthgiver back in the nightsky again, the dark ones came as well, seeking the charm of the newborn, now almost a woman.

Fleetest of touches, then they were gone, leaving her all alone with the hisses and shrieks of the rarest nightcreatures. She had ceased crying, begging for Mother's arms. The cold had turned to burning her skin, and she clutched her arms to her bosom.

The dragons were the last. Forked tongues played over her moonpale skin, leaving streaks of fire that the cold soon took away.

The night passed, and she stood in silence watching as her Mother sank towards the western mountains. Soon the new day would greet the world, and her time would be over. She had no words for how she knew this, but her heart told her the truth.

Her blessing, the Moon's gift to the night, had been given. Who needed her now? An aged lady sat down in the snow, her last strength spent in a wave of her hand to where Mother hid behind the mountaintops.

Moonborn, her birth a miracle of the night. Moonborn child of the palest light, bringer of joy to the world's dark hours.

Moonborn lay down to sleep, to rest until her light returned to the nighttime sky.